Ben Jonson's Walk to Scotland

Abstract

At the heart of this book is a previously unpublished account of Ben Jonson's celebrated walk from London to Edinburgh in the summer of 1618. This unique firsthand narrative provides us with an insight into where Jonson went, whom he met, and what he did on the way. James Loxley, Anna Groundwater and Julie Sanders present a clear, readable and fully annotated edition of the text. An introduction and a series of contextual essays shed further light on topics including the evidence of provenance and authorship, Jonson's contacts throughout Britain, his celebrity status, and the relationships between his 'foot voyage' and other famous journeys of the time. The essays also illuminate wider issues such as early modern travel and political and cultural relations between England and Scotland. It is an invaluable volume for scholars and upper-level students of Ben Jonson studies, early modern literature, seventeenth-century social history, and cultural geography.

‘Tweeting Ben Jonson’s Walk: Experiencing the Spatial-Temporality of the “Foot Voyage”’

“…Others tweets implied it, as in the view of Bamburgh castle prominent within the coastal landscape and visible from their more inland route at this point; or that of Lumley castle which they viewed on their journey from durham to newcastle. 32 nearing durham however, Jonson's companion became separated from him as they toiled over the hill at Ferryhill, apparently losing him in a storm. He seems briefly to have lost his way, arriving in durham 'muck wet' .…”

“…Tweeted reminders like this of the act of walking itself served to amplify the kinetic qualities of the journey, making explicit the movement implicit in the gradually extending route shown on the map. 33 From Skelbrooke to Wentbridge 'Mr Copley & his man came on foot with us' , and from Tadcaster to york, Jonson's 'two friends errant still keeping us company who although they rid we could not be rid of them' . Jonson and his companion's progress on foot deliberately slowed the unfolding of the narrative, so that others wishing to accompany them had to adapt to their slower mode of travel.…”

“…The history of this journey therefore is as importantly written in the walk itself, its mobilities, and not just the sites he visited which the project was able to geo-locate on the map. 34 not so easily mappable however was the very motion carrying Jonson forward; the icon of two walkers on the digital map marking specific locations captured where they halted, but his exact route, and the footsteps that embodied his motion could only be implied on a map; the connections between 'the walk, as an event; the walker, as a human subject; and walking, as an embodied act' . 35 In contrast, the tweets that suggested the physicality of walking, the terrain crossed, their companions' modes of travel, the timings of departures and arrivals, and where the rain shaped their day's journey, gave more substance to the lived experience of walking in early modern England and Scotland.…”

“…Constrained by the slow speed of walking, and unable to spur himself away on a horse, Jonson was forced to endure the attention of others on the road, the 'shake-ragg errant' and his two doxies just outside London, and in yorkshire the inebriated parson that stuck to them 'leaping and dancing' from Tollerton to Topcliffe. 38 Through the practice of walking Jonson was travelling in a different space from that afforded by the more elevated perspective on top of a horse. Here I am borrowing from de Certeau's definition of a social space, 'space is a practiced place'; 'space is composed of intersections of mobile elements.…”

“…not the least of these was the inclusion of the answer to the question we posed on twitter about the token Jonson was given at Ware. 61 One of the most representative ways in which to display this accumulated historical knowledge, and located accretions of human action, is within the digitized map. For Ethington 'knowing the topoi of history is literally to map the past' .…”